I recently went to a community event where the speaker delivered valuable information on AD/HD or ADD.  This topic is always of interest to me as one of my sons, now 19, has ADD.  He was diagnosed in the 3rd grade and was on and off medication.  The side effects of the medication were lack of appetite, hard to sleep, and “feeling weird” (per my son).  So we set about to find other solutions that worked for him.

One of the solutions was to get rid of his dresser.  Sounds weird, right?  But we had a constant battle with him about his clothes.  We expected his room to be cleaned up ( just once a week) and his clothes were always the biggest hurdle.  There were clothes on the bed, on the floor, falling out of the dresser – pure chaos to his professional organizer mom!  One day when he and I were arguing about this,  I asked “What’s it going to take to get you to put away your clothes?”.  His response was “I don’t like my dresser.”

What??!! What is there not to like about a dresser. It’s not your best friend, but it does hold your clothes… Then I asked more questions.  He eventually related that he hated having to open and close the drawers.  He only wore the clothes on top because he couldn’t see the ones underneath. He felt the drawers were a hassle.  I really listened and realized that although most Americans use dressers, it didn’t mean that he had to.  There were other ways to manage his clothing.  So we removed the dresser and here’s what we did:

1. Purchased more hangers, and hung up all his clothes. Yes, even his jeans and skater t-shirts.
2. Put 2 baskets on the shelf above the closet rod; one for socks, the other for underwear.
3. Seasonal items like his gloves, snowboard pants, and other winter gear we put in a clear zipper bag under his bed.

This simple solution cost less than $10.00 and has worked for the past 5 years!  Even now that he does his own laundry!  It works for him because he can “see” all of his clothes at a glance, he doesn’t have to fold anything, and he doesn’t have to open and clothes several drawers to get dressed in the morning.

Sometimes we have to step out of the mentality of  “that’s what everyone does or uses” and come up with systems that work better for us, whether we have ADD or not!  Please share some solutions you have come up with to help stay organized and on top of your day-to-day activities.   I would love your comments!

Fall is in the air finally! I love this time of year, my senses come alive with the color changes, the glowing pumpkins, the hot ciders and everything else. It is also a good time of year to work on your wardrobe! Here are a few tips to organize your closets

1. Hang all hangers backwards.
Sounds strange I know, but bear with me. When you pull something out to wear it, the hanger gets turned around and hung the usual way. At the end of the season it is easy to see what you did not wear; anything that is still on a backwards hanger! This way you can purge quickly as you prepare to change your closet for the next season.
2. Use different color hangers for clothes you want to wear a 2nd time. Many of our clothes are dry clean only so we tend to wear them a couple of times before they go back to the cleaners. Sometimes it is difficult to determine if this is a second wear or not. When hanging up something you have worn once already, use a different color hanger to indicate that you have one more wear before it goes in the dry cleaning bag. Speaking of dry cleaning….
3. Install a hook in the closet or behind the bedroom door to hang your dry cleaning bag.
This keeps the clothes from being piled in a corner or on a chair. When the bag is full, then it’s time to go to the dry cleaners.
4. Use multi hangers to create space.
There are some really cool hanger products on the market today. For example, one hanger can hold 5 skirts or 5 shirts, there are innovative pants hangers out there as well. Another tool that might help increase your closet space, short of a complete closet system, is a second bar. These are bars that hang, from the existing closet bar, down lower to hold your pant hangers beneath your shirts.
5. Use baskets on closet shelves for bulky sweaters and sweatshirts.
Our fall and winter wardrobes are a bit bulkier, so use the top of your closet to hold baskets to hold the bulky, less frequently worn items. Of course, at the end of the season if you have never worn the item, you should donate it. There are also shelf dividers. When positioned between stacks of clothing on your closet shelf, the dividers help everything to stay in its place, in an organized manner.
That’s all we ever want, right?